The betting scandal rocking Turkish football worsened on 9 December after an Istanbul court ordered in the last few hours 20 suspects, including top flight players, club presidents and referees, to be remanded in custody. The decision follows a major operation on 5 December, when 40 people were arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigation led by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office.
According to various media reports in Turkey, the court order to commit to prison pending trial concerns Emrah Çelik, Yunus Emre Tekoğul, İzzet Furkan Malak, Bartu Kaya, Orkun Özdemir, Kadir Kaan Yurdakul, Faruk Can Genç, Ersen Dikmen, Kerem Yusuf Sirkeci, Emircan Çiçek, Gürhan Sünmez, Mehmet Emin Katipoğlu, Volkan Erten, Şahin Kaya, Ümit Kaya, Murat Sancak, Metehan Baltacı, Mert Hakan Yandaş, Ahmet Okatan and Alassane Ndao; among these 20 people are five top-level footballers, including Galatasaray defender Metehan Baltacı, Konyaspor’s Senegalese winger Alassane Ndao and Fenerbahçe international midfielder Mert Hakan Yandaş.
Meanwhile, 19 other suspects were released under judicial supervision, including Ahmet Abdullah Çakmak, Eren Karadağ, Uğur Adem Gezer, Arda Türken, Muhammed Furkan Özhan, Yusuf Özdemir, Ensar Bilir, Oktay Aydin, Yücel Gürol, Abdulsamet Burak, Cengiz Demir, Erhan Çelenk, İsmail Kalburcu, Salih Malkoçoğlu, Samet Karabatak, Tolga Kalender, Uğur Kaan Yıldız, Gamze Neli Kaya and first division referee and UEFA referee Zorbay Küçük. The also former referee and famous TV sports commentator Ahmet Çakar, also arrested, had to be hospitalised for health problems after his arrest and remains under treatment for the time being.
Transfers of 90,000 euros to place sports bets
As reported by Turkish news agency Anatolia, the prosecutor’s investigation mentions that Fenerbahçe player Mert Hakan Yandaş transferred 4,453,062 liras – about €90,000 – to a suspect named Ersen Dikmen between December 2021 and October 2025. The prosecutor’s report notes that Dikmen promptly moved that money to legal gambling platforms, and subsequently returned a total of 2,060,974 liras (nearly €42,000) to Yandaş.
The prosecution mentions multiple betting coupons attributed to Dikmen, including from Fenerbahçe matches, coinciding with the period when he started receiving transfers from Yandaş. The report underlines that “it was determined that there were images of coupons showing that bets were placed on the Fenerbahçe team, of which he was a player, and that it was assessed that suspect Yandaş carried out actions aimed at influencing the results of the match, placing bets independently of the club through suspect Ersen Dikmen”.
The investigation also targets Metehan Baltacı, indicating that he bet on 27 matches during his time at Galatasaray through an account registered on a legal betting platform called ‘Nesine’. According to the prosecution’s indictment file, the player placed bets “saying that his own team would win and that there would be more than 2.5 goals“.
In a public statement, Baltacı defended himself against the accusations against him by saying that “I have never made any transactions on illegal betting sites” and that “I have never bet on a team whose shirt I have worn”, although he admitted to having opened an account on a legal platform years ago, but insisting that he did not do so to fix league matches. For his part, Yandaş has also denied the allegations and claims he was never offered or agreed to alter the outcome of a football match.
The court which on Tuesday ordered the remand in custody of 20 people implicated in the football betting scandal also ordered the arrest of the presidents of two second division football clubs, accused by the prosecution of an alleged agreement to manipulate the outcome of a match in the 2023-2024 season. According to the Turkish press, the documents detail that Ankaraspor president Mehmet Emin Katipoğlu and Nazilli Belediyespor president Şahin Kaya agreed on a draw that guaranteed Ankaraspor access to the promotion play-offs and allowed Nazilli to stay in the division.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
